Middle Easthttps://www.commonwealmagazine.org/taxonomy/term/67/all
en'American Sniper'https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/american-sniper
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<div class="field-item even"><div>Moviegoers are up in arms about a film of arms—<em>American Sniper</em>, Clint Eastwood’s tense account of the bloody saga of Chris Kyle, the Navy Seal who, during four tours of duty in Iraq, notched more kills than any sniper in U.S. military history. Some critics have trashed the film as warmongering, racist, right-wing propaganda. Amy Nicholson in the <em>L.A.</em></div></div>
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Thu, 19 Feb 2015 19:42:55 +0000Rand Richards Cooper36921 at https://www.commonwealmagazine.orgSoft Thinking, Hard Problemshttps://www.commonwealmagazine.org/soft-thinking-hard-problems
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<div class="field-item even"><p>The Obama administration’s <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/2015_national_security_strategy.pdf">2015 National Security Strategy (NSS)</a>, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-national-security-strategy-stresses-alliances-american-values/2015/02/06/fa69c174-ad8b-11e4-abe8-e1ef60ca26de_story.html">delivered on February 6 to Congress</a>, deserves a careful reading, but only after first fortifying yourself with a tall caffeinated beverage.</p></div>
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Tue, 10 Feb 2015 19:33:51 +0000Andrew J. Bacevich36877 at https://www.commonwealmagazine.orgObama's Breakfast Prayerhttps://www.commonwealmagazine.org/obamas-breakfast-prayer
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<div class="field-item even"><p>Maybe we should just call off the National Prayer Breakfast and stop asking presidents to offer their thoughts about faith and religion. If they go beyond making all present feel good about how religious and upright they are, presidents can get into a lot of trouble.</p>
<p>President Obama’s speech to the breakfast last Thursday did not seem terribly controversial when I first listened. He spoke of his own faith and invoked Eleanor Roosevelt’s nice prayer: “Keep us at tasks too hard for us that we may be driven to Thee for strength.”</p></div>
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Mon, 09 Feb 2015 15:33:58 +0000E. J. Dionne Jr.36869 at https://www.commonwealmagazine.orgHerzl's Visionhttps://www.commonwealmagazine.org/book-reviews/herzls-vision
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<div class="field-item even"><p>Accepting the Ben Hecht Award for Outstanding Journalism from the Zionists of America in September 2012, David Horowitz, the right-wing activist and anti-Muslim provocateur, surely surprised his listeners with a confession. “I have never actually been a Zionist or made a case for Zionism,” he acknowledged, before adding “in the sense that Herzl and traditional Zionists understand it.” I am not inclined to agree with Horowitz on much, but on this he was completely correct.</p></div>
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Mon, 09 Feb 2015 15:00:49 +0000Alan Wolfe36871 at https://www.commonwealmagazine.orgBoehner's Blunderhttps://www.commonwealmagazine.org/boehners-blunder
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<div class="field-item even"><p align="left">The bitter partisan politics of the past six years in Washington has made governing almost impossible, delayed economic recovery, and alienated the American people. This has damaged President Barack Obama’s standing with voters, but it has tarnished Congress even more. Partisanship has, of course, long played a role in debates about U.S. foreign policy. More often than not, however, Congress and the executive branch have forged a united front on fundamental questions regarding U.S. interests abroad.</p></div>
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Tue, 03 Feb 2015 20:45:49 +0000The Editors36839 at https://www.commonwealmagazine.orgHeirs to Forgotten Kingdomshttps://www.commonwealmagazine.org/book-reviews/heirs-forgotten-kingdoms
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<div class="field-item even"><p>When the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) conquered the city of Sinjar on August 3, thousands of Yazidis fled to the mountains. Many of the men who stayed behind were executed—some apparently buried alive—and many women were taken as wives (or, rather, slaves) for Islamic State fighters.</p></div>
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Wed, 17 Dec 2014 21:59:01 +0000Gabriel Said Reynolds36691 at https://www.commonwealmagazine.orgWill We Torture Again?https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/will-we-torture-again
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<div class="field-item even"><p>Can we now say with confidence that our government will not use torture again and that Americans in the future will rise up to prevent it from doing so? In light of the reaction to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report, I fear that we can’t.</p></div>
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Thu, 11 Dec 2014 15:39:51 +0000E. J. Dionne Jr.36673 at https://www.commonwealmagazine.orgThe Case Against Interventionhttps://www.commonwealmagazine.org/case-against-intervention
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<div class="field-item even"><p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-7f336b2a-a7fd-04f3-155e-22ceed5803b5">On September 10, President Barack Obama delivered a widely anticipated speech addressing the alarming growth in the scope and power of the militant group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.</span></p></div>
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Wed, 24 Sep 2014 14:20:08 +0000Adrian Bonenberger36399 at https://www.commonwealmagazine.orgMuddled?https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/muddled
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<div class="field-item even"><p align="left">The video executions of two American hostages have awakened this country to the sweepingly brutal campaign of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but its savagery is only part of what has made the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/09/16/world/middleeast/how-isis-works.html">Sunni extremist group dangerous enough</a> for the United States to commit to military action.</p></div>
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Tue, 23 Sep 2014 19:30:03 +0000The Editors36394 at https://www.commonwealmagazine.orgObama, Beyond the Sound Bitehttps://www.commonwealmagazine.org/obama-beyond-sound-bite
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<div class="field-item even"><p>In 1937, Franklin Roosevelt went to Chicago to give one of the most celebrated speeches of his presidency. Pushing against isolationist sentiment, he condemned the “unjustified interference in the internal affairs of other nations” and “the invasion of alien territory in violation of treaties.”</p>
<p>He didn’t mention Nazi Germany, fascist Italy or imperial Japan, but everyone knew what he meant when he called for a “quarantine” to stop “the epidemic of world lawlessness.”</p></div>
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Thu, 04 Sep 2014 14:53:44 +0000E. J. Dionne Jr.36325 at https://www.commonwealmagazine.orgReluctant Rescuehttps://www.commonwealmagazine.org/reluctant-rescue
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<div class="field-item even"><p>Is the United States about to embark on another futile intervention in Iraq? On August 7 President Barack Obama <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/world/middleeast/obama-weighs-military-strikes-to-aid-trapped-iraqis-officials-say.html?_r=0">ordered airstrikes</a> against the forces of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The aims were to protect Yazidis and other religious minorities and to prevent ISIS from routing Kurdish fighters and endangering U.S. personnel in Erbil, the Kurdish capital in Northern Iraq.</p></div>
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Mon, 25 Aug 2014 04:00:00 +0000The Editors36286 at https://www.commonwealmagazine.orgFearful Asymmetryhttps://www.commonwealmagazine.org/fearful-asymmetry
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<div class="field-item even"><p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-a7064064-d65c-85aa-9550-ab0e51dbef0a">Kierkegaard taught that you don’t really know what your opinions are until you’re required to act upon them. Unless you have had to sacrifice something for justice, for example, you don’t really know what you believe about justice. The Danish philosopher might have gone slightly overboard in his talk against empty talk, but I think he has a point.</span></p></div>
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Thu, 14 Aug 2014 21:29:33 +0000Gordon Marino36263 at https://www.commonwealmagazine.orgBack to Iraq?https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/back-iraq
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<div class="field-item even"><p align="left">In an address to West Point graduates in May, President Barack Obama articulated his vision of a more restrained U.S. foreign policy. Attempting to steer a course between a self-defeating isolationism and an incautious interventionism, the president argued that it would be wrong to send troops “into harm’s way simply because I saw a problem somewhere in the world that needed to be fixed, or because I was worried about critics who think military intervention is the only way for America to avoid looking weak.”</p></div>
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Tue, 24 Jun 2014 17:00:36 +0000The Editors36105 at https://www.commonwealmagazine.orgDick Cheney’s Chutzpahhttps://www.commonwealmagazine.org/dick-cheney%E2%80%99s-chutzpah
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<div class="field-item even"><p>The infinitely valuable Yiddish word “chutzpah” is defined as “shameless audacity” or “impudence.”</p>
<p>It’s singularly appropriate for the astonishing op-ed piece that former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz published in <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/dick-cheney-and-liz-cheney-the-collapsing-obama-doctrine-1403046522"><em>The Wall Street Journal</em> on Wednesday</a>. It’s not every day that a leader of the previous administration suggests that the current president is a “fool” and accuses him of intentionally weakening the United States.</p></div>
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Thu, 19 Jun 2014 01:10:00 +0000E. J. Dionne Jr.36091 at https://www.commonwealmagazine.orgJust-War Illusionshttps://www.commonwealmagazine.org/just-war-illusions
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<div class="field-item even"><div>In the early weeks of September 2013, when it appeared likely that the United States would launch missile strikes on Syria in retaliation for its use of chemical weapons against civilians, <em>Commonweal</em> published two opinion pieces responding to the Obama administration’s case for going to war. <a href="https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/dont-attack-syria">George Hunsinger rejected U.S.</a></div></div>
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Fri, 07 Mar 2014 20:45:55 +0000Ronald E. Osborn35686 at https://www.commonwealmagazine.org